


I forgot to get you anything

by solraneth



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, and of course james would bring her books, anyway i love these two, but it's a bit sad, can't say it's angst, why do i keep writing sad stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:01:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22144525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solraneth/pseuds/solraneth
Summary: How James and Miranda spent their first Christmas in Nassau.
Relationships: Miranda Barlow & Captain Flint | James McGraw, Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	I forgot to get you anything

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Black Sails Winter Prompts in 2018, originally posted it on tumblr but I guess I can post it here too, since I have an account now. Also why write new stuff when I can just post old fics?

James woke up to a loud “Fuck!” and sound of metal hitting wood. He sat up rapidly, his sleepy mind not grasping reality adequately.

“Miranda?” he called out.

“I’m fine!”

James pulled on the first shirt he saw, and walked, barefoot, to the kitchen.

“What happened?”

“I was making porridge and left the spoon in the pot. I should have expected it to get hot.” Miranda was standing with her back to him, mixing something in the pot. “James, please, pass me those bowls.“ She turned to show him where the bowls were and let go of the spoon, which slipped fully into the porridge.

“Fuck!” She swore again. “Why is this happening to me?! Do give me another spoon too, please,” she added.

“A fine lady like you shouldn’t swear,” James smirked, passing her the spoon.

“Oh but I’m not a lady anymore.” She turned and gave him his bowl of porridge. Wiping her hand on the apron, she took her own bowl and took it to the table. James followed her, his mood much worse than it had been minutes ago. He hated how a simple phrase could extinguish whatever little happiness he felt.

They had been living in Nassau for almost a year. It had not been easy, adjusting to a new place, with new names, as new people. The first several months had been the hardest, the wound of losing Thomas had been raw and got in the way of anything they tried to accomplish. Slowly, together, they learned to see past their pain, learned to live with it and although it wasn’t easy, established a life for themselves in Nassau. They certainly weren’t living in poverty, but it was much less than Miranda had been used to. He glanced at her briefly – she was so strong. He admired her now even more than he did back in London. He looked at her again. Miranda seemed sad and when she turned to look at him, he saw tears in her eyes.

“I dreamt of him again,” she whispered. Tears welled up in James’ eyes too, as they always did at the mention of Thomas. He reached out and took Miranda’s hand. She brought their hands up and pressed a kiss where their fingers entwined. James stayed quiet. Everything there was to be said, they had said a million times before and there was no need for words anymore. They understood each other without having to talk. So they finished their breakfast in silence, James rubbing Miranda’s hand with his thumb.

—

Miranda sat on the bed and watched James put on his clothes. She was already worrying about him, as she always did when he prepared to sail. As he sat and began pulling on his boots, she wondered, as she had done so many times for the past months, whether this was the last time she saw him. She couldn’t help it – she had lost a loved one once and she certainly wasn’t ready for another loss.

“Will you be back soon?” Miranda asked.

“Yeah. It isn’t a big raid, shouldn’t take more than two weeks,” he said, putting on the second boot and standing up.

“So you’ll be here for Christmas?”

“Christmas?”

“Well, we were at sea during Christmas last year… I thought maybe we could celebrate it this time,” she said carefully, “it’s been forever since we had a proper evening together. When you’re here, you’re either bleeding or brooding.”

James avoided her eyes. “Yeah… Yeah, alright.” he took his belt and walked outside, Miranda at his heels. She stood beside him the whole time he was saddling the horse. At last, he turned to say goodbye.

“Be careful,” she murmured, kissing his cheek.

James smiled. “You too. Try not to get too bored.”

“Oh no, how could I? There are so many people around!” she gave back with a sarcastic smile.

“What about that friend of yours, the pastor?” He grinned and took her hand. “Oh, Mrs. Barlow, do ruin this part of The Bible for me while I stare at your breasts!” said James, imitating Pastor Lambrick’s voice. Miranda laughed and freed her hand.

“Don’t be so cruel, James. Although I have to agree, he is boring sometimes. Now,” she kissed him quickly, “go, I don’t suppose your crew would appreciate you being late.”

“They’ll still be either drunk or asleep when I get there,” James grumbled, but mounted the horse. He raised his hand in goodbye and rode away. She stood for a moment, following him with her gaze, before going back in the house.

Flint was right. When he got to the camp, the only person who seemed awake was Gates, the quartermaster. Several other pirates were wandering back and forth among the tents, obviously very hungover.

“Captain,” Gates greeted him, as Flint dismounted.

“Mr. Gates.” Flint jerked his head in the direction of the tents, “Too much to drink last night?”

“They’ll be fine.”

Flint’s gaze swept over the men who were slowly starting to emerge from their tents. They grimaced and squinted in the sunlight and some of them were swaying, alcohol not fully out of their system yet.

“They’d better be,” he said, “I don’t want this voyage starting with someone falling overboard because they were too drunk to function.”

Gates smirked. His captain was relatively new to piracy but he should’ve noticed by now that rum didn’t prevent most pirates from doing their job. Nonetheless, he turned and walked to the tents, yelling “Up, up you twats! We have a prize to take!”

—

The Walrus dropped anchor in the port of Nassau on early Christmas morning. It was a week later than Flint had promised Miranda. He hurried to disembark, leaving Gates to see to all business matters. The town was quiet, almost everyone still asleep, with the exception of several drunkards who hadn’t left the tavern all night. Flint quickly reached the house of the man who kept a horse for him. Poor Mr. Pitt was shaken awake by the pirate captain and was too slow for Flint’s liking.

“Move, move,” James barked, pushing the man aside and saddling the horse himself.

“Here.” he thrust a few coins into Mr. Pitt’s hand, mounted the horse and galloped away. The man shook his head, yawned and went into his house, muttering something about pirates being out of their fucking minds.

—

“Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?” Miranda shouted at James as a way of greeting.

“I know, I know, it wasn’t my fault,” James said, collapsing on the bed next to her, “some fucker opened fire on us, made a hole right above our waterline, obviously we lost speed. Not to mention that we lost a shit ton of time too, trying to mend that hole.”

Miranda looked furious. She was breathing heavily and there were dark circles under her eyes, indicating a lack of sleep. “You can’t keep doing this to me. I would rather sail with you than sit here alone for weeks, for months, wondering whether the only person I have in this place is alive or not!” 

James reached out to cup her cheek. “I’m here and I’m fine,” he muttered. “Although, I have to get ba-“

“James!” Miranda protested.

“-ck now,” he continued louder, “but I promise I will be here after midday.”

She huffed and got out of bed. “Nothing I say can keep you here anyway, so what’s the point?” she said bitterly, slipping into her dressing gown.

James stood up and circled the bed, coming to stand in front of her. “I’ll return soon.” he kissed her cheek and turned. He was gone in the blink of an eye and once again Miranda was left alone, with nothing to do but to wait for him.

—

James stayed true to his word this time. At two o’clock Miranda heard the sound of hooves and moments later James entered the house, carrying a sack with him.

“Our share of the prize,” he said, dropping the sack on the floor and taking out the contents. “I also brought chicken – sorry, no chance of turkey – and the finest Malaga from the ship we boarded.” James looked pleased with himself and his expression brought a smile to Miranda's face.

“Malaga? You conveniently forgot to tell me you were raiding a Spanish ship, didn’t you?” she noted, taking the bottle from James’ hand.

James just flashed the cockiest grin he could muster.

—

Evening found them sitting at the kitchen table. Their meal consisted of roasted chicken and pudding which Miranda managed to prepare with whatever ingredients they had. James had insisted on making mulled wine, despite Miranda’s protests that “it’s not cold, James” and “who drinks mulled wine in the Bahamas”.

“This is strange,” Miranda said after they cleaned up the table and sat more comfortably in front of the fire, each holding their own mug of mulled wine.

“What are you talking about?” James glanced at her sideways. She was curled up on her chair, with her mug in her lap. She had changed earlier, claiming that it was hot in the house and was now wearing a simple white dressing gown.

“Christmas without cold weather, or snow, or anything related to Christmas,” she responded and he nodded, sipping on his drink lazily.

“James?”

“Mhm?” he hummed sleepily. The smell of spices, alcohol and warmth of the fire were making him drowsy and he did not feel inclined to long dialogues.

“Thank you,” she reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder, “I know this wasn’t easy for you, with December being such a difficult month for us. I know you would rather ignore Christmas altogether and I appreciate you doing all this for me.”

A sad smile twisted James’ mouth. He reached up and squeezed Miranda’s hand. “I wasn’t particularly easy to deal with during this year, was I? Yeah, there’s so much more I should be doing but I just…”

“Shh, I know. I haven’t been a prize package either, but I feel like we deserve to relax,” Miranda said. “Besides, Christmas means time for family, does it not?” she added.

“That reminds me,” James said, standing up swiftly and walking out of the house. He returned carrying a smaller sack, which he put in Miranda’s lap. By the feel of it, she assumed it was full of books.

“Christmas also means gifts.” He sat down again, looking incredibly smug.

“Oh…” Miranda seemed at loss for words, “I… I forgot to get you anything, James. I was so busy and so worried about you that I completely forgot. I’m sorry, I-“

“Miranda, don’t.” he took her face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You didn’t have to. You’re here and that’s all that matters to me. You didn’t abandon me when I said I’d go to Nassau and you stayed by my side. That’s the best gift you could’ve given to me. Now, see what’s inside, will you?”

She smiled and started taking out the books.

“Aphra Behn, Mary Astell! Oh James, this is wonderful! Where did you get these?”

“Surprisingly, they were on the Spanish ship,” he responded, twisting the rings on his hand absent-mindedly.

After looking through the titles for some time, Miranda sighed. “He would love these.”

James stilled for a moment. “Yeah… yeah he would,” he said then. “Honestly, that was the first thing I thought when I saw those volumes.”

Miranda picked up her mug again. “To him,” she whispered.

“To him,” James responded hoarsely and touched her mug with his.


End file.
